Tag Archives: 53

The Incredible Burt Wonderstone  (2013)    53/100

Posted on by
Reply

Rating :   53/100                                                                     100 Min        15

A comedy about performance magicians that starts really strongly, with attention grabbing use of music and the scene well set, and then loses its way badly, largely due to a central character as devoid of comedy and interest value as the cardboard cutout of himself that he carries around with him. It also ‘misses a trick’ by very obviously using computers and camera play to perform a lot of the magic, which for a big budget movie is really not good enough. Steve Carell plays the aforementioned central character of Wonderstone, who has performed countless shows over a successful career with his high school buddy and fellow magician Anton Marvelton, played by Steve Buscemi, and is now jaded, bored, and bullying everyone around him, with an ego even larger than his over the top hairdo. Enter new wannabe magician Jane, played by the perfectly formed Olivia Wilde, who will of course make him see the error of his ways. It’s overtly trite to say the least, and unfortunately the comedy is largely unwaveringly flat. Notwithstanding, however, a wonderful turn from Jim Carrey as the new daredevil of street magic, Steve Gray, appearing on the scene like a cross between Johnny Knoxville, David Blaine and Axl Rose. Here, on the periphery of the central plot, the film is more successful, if only they’d put more effort into the centre rather than going for the same old dull as ditchwater routine. Alan Arkin and James Gandolfini also appear in support.

Safe Haven  (2013)    53/100

Posted on by
Reply

Rating :   53/100                                                                     115 Min        12A

This is the latest film adaptation of one of Nicholas Sparks’ novels, which will justifiably see many self respecting men, and women, avoiding it like the plague. Like all his previous adaptations, this follows an identical template – the young lovers who could be together were it not for some exterior threat which gets in the way and leads to a confrontation at the end. Ever since ‘The Notebook’ (04), which was actually quite good, the stories have been going steadily downhill, but this isn’t too bad, with both leads, played by Josh Duhamel and Julianne Hough (‘Footloose’ {11}, ‘Rock of Ages’ {12}) proving likeable enough to at least hold some interest. Sparks now has his own production company which appears on the credits here, so we can look forward to seeing all of his stories turned into films with the same predictably nice locations, nice music, good looking actors and hollow drama for the perfection of his feel good, but largely flimsy, fare. Disappointingly, Lasse Hallstrom (‘What’s Eating Gilbert Grape’) directs – his work generally carries a lot of respect, but since this is his second Sparks adaptation (the other being ‘Dear John’{10}) one can’t help but feel they function as mere potboilers between his other projects. A sudden plot twist at the end also reveals Sparks has largely been taking the piss all the way through.

I Give it a Year  (2013)    53/100

Posted on by
Reply

Rating :   53/100                                                                       97 Min        15

A romcom that is as obvious and two dimensional as it is largely humourless. As usual with such fare, things like adultery are made light of in order for the story to resolve itself perfectly, as if by magic, which might be OK if it were pure comedy and, well, really funny, but not if you’re trying to semi-ground the characters in reality. A few scenes do work reasonably well, but another major flaw is that the central character, played by Rafe Spall, is too unrealistically lame for surely anyone to be attracted to, never mind his classically beautiful wife (Rose Byrne) as the film details the implosion of the newly weds expected marital bliss. Anna Faris and Simon Baker round out the main cast, with support from Minnie Driver, Olivia Colman, Jane Asher, Jason Flemyng, who cheekily references his former gig as Dr Jekyll in ‘The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen’ (03), and Stephen Merchant featuring his now overexposed sense of lewd comedy shtick. Look out for the somewhat uncomfortably amusing scene with live doves and Rose Byrne, and what looks very much like real fear on her face as they flap around her, almost as if someone were just out of shot tossing them in her direction….

Parental Guidance  (2012)    53/100

Posted on by
Reply

Rating :   53/100                                                                     105 Min        U

Bette Midler and Billy Crystal star as ‘the other’ grandparents in this comedy, where they finally get a shot at looking after their grandchildren, then proceed to effectively endanger and mistreat them to such a degree they would never in reality be trusted around the children ever again. A very typical American comedy that thinks applying gloss via cinematography and music makes everything hunky dory in the end. It doesn’t. Some of Billy Crystal’s jokes are funny, and the children give good and, at times, very emotional performances, but otherwise there is nothing to save this from its future retirement home in the cheap dvd stand in supermarkets.

Lay the Favorite  (2012)    53/100

Posted on by
Reply

Rating :   53/100                                                                       94 Min        15

In all honesty, the trailer featuring Rebecca Hall gaudily showing lots of flesh was what first attracted The Red Dragon’s attention to this film. Wondering if this was quite merit enough for him to sit and watch it, he was further intrigued by the fact that her accent and entire demeanour were both entirely contrary to anything she has done before. It’s from director Stephen Frears (‘Dangerous Liaisons’ 88, ‘High Fidelity’ 2000, ‘The Queen’ 06) and Ms Hall plays the central character of Beth Raymer, whose autobiographical novel of the same name the film is based on. It follows her story, from casual sex industry dabbler in Florida to professional bookie in Vegas and Central America.

Hall’s performance is a very convincing one and she deserves a lot of credit for daring to take on the role in the first place. Her American accent is unwavering and markedly different from her natural English one, as she fully inhibits the free spirited and talented with numbers Ms Raymer. Indeed, her performance would by itself rate very highly, although some may be put off by the character and the film’s heavy and unfair reliance on her to carry the whole, as it meanders through the story in a fairly messy way. We aren‘t really invited to invest in her as a character as, right from the offset, too much emphasis is placed on her as an object of sexual attraction, almost to the point where she‘s cinematically fetishised. Interesting that this follows on the back of Frear’s ‘Tamara Drew’ (10) and there too a highly sexualised main character, played by Gemma Arterton.

The film does pick up a bit, before degenerating into dull, dangerously close to day time soap opera territory. Bruce Willis is OK in support, and Catherine Zeta-Jones gives a much needed injection of comedy and drama. Indeed, perhaps making more of her character would have added something of more interest to that of the film. In general very average, and probably best left for fans of Rebecca Hall and/or Stephen Frears.